Remove the face cards from a deck of cards. Deal the remaining cards equally between two players. Each player lays down a card face on the table. Player 1 subtracts the smaller card from the larger card and keeps the cards if he gets the correct answer. Two more cards are laid down and player 2 subtracts the smaller card from the larger card and keeps the cards if she gets the correct answer. Play continues until one player runs out of cards or the two players decide to stop, with the player with the most cards winning the game.
Provide children with a sheet of 50 subtraction problems and a time limit of two minutes. Have children race to see how many problems each can solve correctly in the time allotted. Children can play this game multiple times to become more comfortable solving subtraction problems and become more confident in their answers.
On a 5-by-5-inch square grid, have students fill the squares with numbers from 1 to 50. Call out subtraction problems with answers between 1 and 50. If the student has the answer to the problem on the grid, she crosses out the square with a pencil. The first student to cross out a row of five squares wins the game.
In the game of Simon Says, the person designated to be Simon gives instructions to the other players to complete certain movements or actions. For example, "Simon says stand on one foot." If Simon does not say, "Simon says" before giving an order and a player does the action anyway, he is out. For Subtraction Simon Says, give students a bag of colored candy pieces. The person designated to be Simon gives students orders to subtract candy from their bag. For example, "Simon says subtract three green candies from your bag." Students who incorrectly complete the instructions or cannot complete the instructions are out of the game.
Set up nine bowling pins using a toy bowling pin set or 2-liter plastic bottles to represent bowling pins. Have students take turns rolling a plastic bowling ball or other small ball to knock down the pins. After knocking down pins, students should write an equation to represent the number of pins knocked down. For example, if five pins were knocked down, the equation would be 9 - 5 = 4.